


High Education

by elimak



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Humanstuck, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-24
Updated: 2014-02-23
Packaged: 2018-01-02 13:25:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 19,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1057284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elimak/pseuds/elimak
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Humanstuck college AU, Dave's first year in college was supposed to be normal and oriented towards his music, but things take an unexpected turn.<br/>It's a light almost crack like fanfic so don't expect any deep stuff. THIS STORY IS ON A HIATUS. SORRY</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Lesson in Philosophy

**Author's Note:**

> This is dedicated (or should I say was requested) by a friend of my. It's my first homestuck fanfic ever, not to mention with an unusual and quite complicated pairing, so I'm giving it my best to not totally suck at this. I should also point out to the people who might read this that the updates aren't going to be very frequent (maybe a chapter every two weeks) because like I said it's the most complicated fic I've ever written and plus I have lots of school stuff. Enjoy

Alright, final check-ups. Laptop-check, one bag of clothes that look roughly the same, but in a cool way-check, one bag of ridiculously awesome stuff like his katana and a few jars of dead stuff-check, casual everyday backpack that was practically empty-check, and most importantly, the shades-always a check and always god damn rad as hell. Dave thought to himself while he got all the stuff out of the trunk of the cab.

The straps of the two heavy bags supported by each of his shoulders were digging painfully into them, but the blond ignored it, walking the short distance across the street to his college. The strap, along with the fabric of Dave’s shirt was definitely going to leave marks on his shoulders. Though, his face remained expressionless through the burning while his hands were loosely holding the ends of the straps. It would take a lot more than that for him to break his cool.

There was really almost a cliché setting around the place: the perfectly mowed, sickly green lawn with a few trees to make it look more like nature and not like a mini golf field, where pretty much everything was made from plastic, those motivational posters on the nearby stands with things like ‘anything is possible if you believe in yourself’ written on them, a few older students walking along in their representative college T-shirts and caps giving out flyers, smiling at everyone and everything as if they had a scorpion shoved up their ass. John would love this place, Dave thought.

 “Would you hurry the fuck up, I’m melting over here!” Karkat shouted impatiently waiting near the entrance of the huge building. He kept tapping his foot as a nervous tick and moving his dark hair out of the way so it wouldn’t stick to his face.

“Yeah, because screaming will help you cool down.” Dave replied walking in the same regular pace that was not too slow or too fast, just right. Karkat sighed with an unnecessary eye roll, swiping away a lock of hair that fell back on his face

“Just go get your god damn papers sorted, I’ll take your disgusting fucking bags to our room.” He liked to emphasize his swear words usually by scrunching up his face a bit to show that yes, he was indeed disgusted by those bags.

“I love it when you spoil me like that babe.” Dave said curling up the corner of his mouth in a barely visible smirk as they were walking in the building. Karkat stopped in his tracks like he was just stung and turned around slowly

“The fuck did you just call me you shitstick?” he asked narrowing his eyes, almost snarling at him in a way that was supposed to look threatening but really didn’t.   

“You know, your face can stick like that if you’re not careful.” Dave said ignoring the question and pointing to his face which was almost comically fuming right now.

“Do you wanna sleep in the fucking hallway tonight?”

“Oh, don’t be like that babe.” He replied with the same smirk on his face completely unfazed by Karkat’s famous ‘shocked/disgusted and about to go on a murder spree’ face. He was gonna love living with this guy, he could feel it.

“If you don’t stop calling me that, I’ll piss in these bags, you got that asshole?” he threatened raising his eyebrows

“Don’t you fucking dare touch my stuff.” Dave’s smirk disappeared in an instant. He had the tendency to pour out his words in a quick yet articulate manner when he was angry, like he couldn’t hold the words in.

“Then stop calling me ‘babe.’”

“Fine.” Dave sighed with a defeated slump of shoulders “I’ll meet you in our new room in a few.”

“Oh actually...” Karkat started saying and Dave stopped in his tracks watching as his roommate was struggling with saying something “I was kinda planning on going around campus and meeting with a few people I know…” he started to explain throwing in an eye roll or a sigh to make it seem like he didn’t really care about the things he was saying

“Dude if you wanna go out, you don’t need my permission.” Dave interrupted him “You’re free as a fucking bird, that’s what college life is all about.” Though, Karkat was giving him a wide-eyed expression

“I didn’t ask for a fucking lesson in philosophy. If you had let me finish, I’d have offered you to come with me and meet some people you douche.”

“Oh, yeah sure that sounds pretty cool.” Dave shrugged while Karkat let out a frustrated groan

“Just don’t embarrass me in front of them; they’re a year older than us so just be fucking cool for once.”

“Me? Bro, do you see me sweatin’ in this heat? Not a chance yo, ‘cause I’m cool like this sick ass beat…”  Dave started an unexpected improv while Karkat stared at him with the most horrified expression

“Oh my god” was all that he could mutter under his breath as Dave went on

“You gotta let it go, make a note I’m chill like the pill. Smooth as ice like Mr Bond with a license to kill.” Dave finished with a small satisfied smile on his face

 “Sweet Jesus do you ever shut up?!” Karkat asked incredulously almost shouting. “Just don’t even speak _ever,_ oh god.” He gave Dave a disgusted look and turned to head off to their room, while Dave’s smile grew bigger

“So if ‘babe’ is off the table, I can still call you honey bunny right?” he called after him and saw as Karkat once again stopped in his tracks just to shake his head as if Dave was an imbecile, purely for the dramatic effect.

“Well I gotta call ya something.” Dave shrugged innocently as Karkat stormed off loudly and quickly.

Things went quicker in the office than he had expected. All he had to do was open his mouth and say the words ‘campus’ ‘freshman’ and ‘roommate’ and the old lady behind the desk gave him a form to fill out not even lifting her head from her tasks.

Dave initially planned on staying in his room all day, just to chill and get used to his new temporary home, maybe mix a beat or two on his sweet ass turntables. Those thoughts had been making camp in his head all day. The images like the small yet airy room with better acoustics than his previous room, a place for all his stuff, a comfy bed, and for once some cool people living nearby, preferably, with a few gorgeous not too cocky and perfectly dateable chicks living just across the hall. Of course that was far fetching it, but Dave could dream.

He had so long to think about it, he was actually waiting until he got to be alone with his ill beats and maybe a few beers like he would be waiting for a good, deserved nap after a tiring day. But nevertheless, he met up with Karkat no less than five minutes later.

The day was too warm for his taste. His shades kept slipping off his sweaty nose, but Dave refused to take them off.

Karkat led him around half of the campus continuously mumbling about the hellish weather and how ‘bathing in fucking lava would be pretty refreshing in comparison’. Dave tuned out most of it and looked around the place he would be spending four years at, feeling little regret about leaving his home. Dave never really gave it much thought, he just assumed that he was just cool like that, he could adapt to new things like a god damn chameleon. But like a really awesome and smooth chameleon who could pick up girls and make some sick rhymes too.

They approached a group of four other students who were all lying on a big blanket continuously laughing. Though, as Dave and Karkat got closer, and Dave could see them better, he realized that all the cackling was coming from only one particularly loud girl with short, mousy hair and bright red shades.

Then there was another dark haired girl with a long floral skirt lying on her stomach, peacefully reading some book and seemingly ignoring the loud girl. Dave already admired her ability to not give a fuck.

Near her was a scrawny looking guy with small, round glasses and a worried look etched on his face as he was sitting cross legged and wildly flipping pages of a text book in search for something.

And lastly there was another guy with possibly the messiest hair he had ever seen, who was the only one paying attention to what the loud girl was doing by nodding his head in agreement and smiling non-stop. He looked like the oldest even though he and his other three friends were all in the same year. It was probably his unshaved beard and sunken eyes that were forming this weird vibe around him, which gave Dave a bad feeling.

Before they could get at a speaking distance with them, the loud girl suddenly stopped her rambling and raised her head swiftly like a dog when it hears the word ‘treats!’ Dave could swear to John’s non-ironic love for Nic Cage that he saw her slightly sniff the air around her, before a grin spread across her face and she flung herself at their direction

“Karkat!” she exclaimed jumping into his arms with all the grace of Bambi on ice.

“Hey get the fuck off me you freak!” Karkat started struggling but she seemed to have a strong grip for a short and fragile looking girl. “Get your filthy hands off of me you clingy turd fly!”

“You haven’t changed one bit.” She said letting go with a bit of disappointment in her tone. The rest of the group greeted him less enthusiastically than the loud girl

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Karkat started ranting. “Can’t you act like a regular non-sociopathic person for once? The concept of personal fucking space must not be that familiar to you. It’s something you do _not_ cross! If I could I’d probably extend mine to the size of god damn Texas and have barbed wire and armies of zombies protecting it and even then you’d-“

“Hey I’m sure we’re all thrilled to hear the ending of that story,” the loud girl interrupted him putting her hands on his shoulders “but are you going to introduce us to your friend?” she said motioning to Dave. The entire group’s eyes suddenly turned to the blond like he had appeared just now.

Even if Dave was overwhelmed by this sudden attention no one would know since his eyes were shielded and his face was carved into a constant mask of coolness.

“Fine.” Karkat sighed, slumping his shoulders, agitated that his rant was interrupted “Guys this is my new roommate Dave.” He said in a bored tone stepping back. Dave responded with a casual “yo” directed to everyone and no one in particular at the same time.

“Dave this is Terezi” he said with an exasperated sigh and an eye roll pointing to the loud girl “Kanaya, Sollux and Gamzee.”

Dave was about to respond but felt someone take hold of his arm. The loud girl was all up in his sweet personal space suddenly, touching the fabric of his shirt, his hair and his shade-oh hell no.

“What the fuck are you doing?” he asked stepping back out of her reach. The loud girl frowned

“Getting to know you silly!”

“Can’t you do that without climbing on me? Or is this some messed up way of feeling me up. In which case I’m flattered, but lady I don’t even know you or-“

“I wasn’t trying to feel you up!” she said stepping back turning bright red

“I see that you neglected to inform Dave that Terezi is blind.” The other girl, Kanaya said calmly to Karkat with a hint of… it was hard for Dave to name it. Was it slight sarcasm?

“It’s not my fucking job to tell him your boring ass life stories.” Karkat snapped back and then turned to Dave “But yeah you should probably know that she is blind, so she operates mostly by touch and hearing.”

“Holy shit, you don’t say.” Dave replied in an even tone. Dave was embarrassed, but yet again it was impossible for the others to see it “Sorry for freaking you out like that.” He said turning to Terezi “But don’t ever touch my shades again, that’s not alright.”

“Fine fine Mr. cool guy.” She replied in a mocking tone.

“So, Dave” Kanaya sat up straight, interested in him “how are you liking Florida? What are you going to study here?”

“Oh god Kanaya leave him alone or at least start with the most important question, how the hell did Karkat talk you into being roommates with him? Did he bribe you?” the specky guy, Sollux, asked closing the book but still tapping on the edge of it nervously, while Terezi laid out another blanket for the both of them to sit on.

Karkat was about to snap back at him, but Dave started talking over him

“Yeah sorta, he’s gonna repay me in sexual favors.”

“If you two don’t shut the fuck up about this, I will not only piss in those bags, but go out, eat some hot, spicy Mexican food and shit in them as well.” Karkat said quickly before anyone else cut him off

Meanwhile, Sollux tugged on Terezi’s sleeve suddenly and said in a hushed voice

“Ten bucks says those two won’t last living together longer than Gamzee and Tavros.”

“You’re on.” she whispered back with a challenging look on her face. In the meantime Dave noticed that the Gamzee guy wasn’t even paying attention to anything around him, even though the deal was made literally right in front of him. Was he maybe deaf? Dave thought and hoped to god he wasn’t going to start sniffing him too.

Gamzee just kept rocking back and forth slowly, humming quietly in a high pitched tone making his voice sort of break and sound uneven. Dave was pretty confused until he saw the half burnt joint in his hand.

“Holy cockstorm balls, Gamzee and Tavros are living together now?” Karkat exclaimed surprised…well not really it was more of a sarcastic surprise “Those two stoned ass weirdoes deserve each other I guess.”

“Yes, Gamzee forgot that dorms are mostly for first years like you guys and ended up renting the first apartment available.” Kanaya explained matter-of-factly “and if you are suggesting that they are now living together as a couple, I’m afraid this is where you’re wrong.” Her speaking manner resembled a talking text-book _._ She and Rose would probably get along.

 Terezi and Sollux were talking to each other about the bet probably, while Gamzee hadn’t stopped humming. He was now humming a really high pitched note in short intervals.

“Who the fuck even cares? It’s easier to keep track of fly farts than your relationships.” Karkat remarked in a truly angry tone this time and looked away right after.

Sweat was forming on Dave’s forehead uncomfortably, and the humming just wouldn’t stop.

“So Dave, what are you going to study?” Kanaya asked again

“Uh yeah, right” he was trying to concentrate through the heat, but the humming seemed to have been getting louder and louder “So I’m gonna be all up in the-“ the note went half a tone higher “music business like producing and mixing cause I can make some sick ass rhymes yo.”

He could feel the blood pumping through the veins in his temples and his heart beat echoing in his ear drums loudly

“So, that hideous thing that you said to me earlier was supposed to be an example of that you dipping dick spack? That horrible set of words that could make an onion cry was supposed to be your rhymes?” Karkat asked outraged.

It wouldn’t stop it just _wouldn’t_.

“Hey don’t go on dissing my rhymes-“ it wouldn’t stop. Dave’s finger twitched “-they’re every bit as sweet as-“ why wouldn’t he just shut _the fuck_ up “as-uh-“ a bead of sweat dropped down from Dave’s nose “Could you fucking knock it off?!” he snapped in Gamzee’s direction above his usual tone of voice. The rest of the group went quiet and stared at him with wide eyes. Shit, that was so not cool.

The only one who didn’t see the significance in Dave’s little outburst was Karkat and thank god for Dave he was the one who saved him from the heavy silence that settled in between the group.

“Thank fuck you finally said something sensible.” He replied loudly and then turned to Gamzee “Has anyone ever told you your voice sounds as beautiful as my nails being dragged across a fucking chalkboard?” Dave’s heartbeat was going back to normal, though, he was still sweating.

“Thank you, man.” Gamzee replied after a pause looking sincerely thankful for the insult. His movements were slow, uncoordinated, giving the impression of a mental patient “You always were a nice motherfucker.” He said emphasizing the word ‘motherfucker’ with such fondness as if it were a sweet nickname.

“That wasn’t a compliment you pre-developed tool!” Karkat said outraged that his words were taken the wrong way.

But then again, Dave thought, what kind of idiot could mistake that for a compliment? Unless Gamzee was doing this on purpose to drive Karkat up the wall. That would actually be pretty damn funny. However, that type of ironic depth seemed unfitting for a guy who looked like someone who could happily shit his pants.

“Hey lay off of him.” Terezi piped up with an annoyed look

“Oh sure, _his_ privacy you respect.” He bit back harshly and Terezi visibly turned her back on him offended. In the mean time Gamzee turned his sleepy, red eyes on Dave

“I’m sorry man, I was just trying to get into my zone y’know?” Gamzee explained with his smile still present on his face. Seriously. It never left his face. “I should’ve realized that a poetic soul like yours would be more sensitive and emotionally unstab-“

“Hold on there, bubba.” Dave suddenly interrupted “what poetic soul are you blabbering about?” he asked getting more and more confused by this guy. Gamzee looked taken aback like it was a ridiculous question, yet the smile never left his face, it just wasn’t as wide.

“You take the simple words and you make miracles out of them by making them rhyme and giving them meaning, don’t you?” he asked with childish wonder after taking another smoke

“Yeah sure, whatever man, but-“ Dave started quickly, but Gamzee got ahead of him

“So you’re a poet.”

“It’s called rapping you dick, I ain’t no-“ but Gamzee carried on as if Dave wasn’t even there while Terezi was barely holding in her laughter

“There’s even a saying: one does what one is, one becomes what one does.” Gamzee starred off into the distance dreamily nodding to himself

“What the fuck is that even supposed to mean?” Dave said not really asking. Sollux sighed turning to Dave

“Yeah Gamzee studies philosophy.” As if that was an obvious, self-explanatory reason for his behavior.

“Whatever man, I’m not a poet, I’m a rapper. I make songs not poems.” Dave said and ruled out Gamzee as someone he didn’t like.  

“It’s okay Dave, don’t mind Gamzee.” Terezi said after calming down “I actually know of this underground bar where you could show off your skills.” She said seriously

“That would be dope.” Dave said excitedly. Of course for him, expressing excitement meant raising his eyebrows a little bit above the top of his shades.

“Cool, if I remember correctly, they have poetry nights every Tuesday.” Terezi carried on and started laughing, barely getting through saying the last word. Dave sighed barely visibly and contemplated adding her to the list as well.

Sollux joined in with quiet snickers that he was trying to hide while Kanaya rolled her eyes going back to her book.

“For the love of god stop it.” Karkat chimed in finally, putting his face into his hand. He couldn’t really keep quiet for long. “The jokes are almost as bad as your mother’s upbringing skills.” He said looking at Terezi and Gamzee. The later was already gone in his world though. His gaze was fixed on nothing, the hand holding the nearly burnt joint dropped down and Kanaya cautiously took it out of his hand.

“Oh my god, are you actually defending Dave?” Terezi exclaimed over dramatically, their previous quarrel suddenly forgotten.

“I’m not defending anyone!” Karkat was quick to correct. However, before Terezi could reply with an all-knowing look Kanaya interrupted their chat

“I don’t mean to interrupt, but if you remember we have to get to the library on time.” she said to the rest of them, nudging Gamzee slightly so he’d ‘wake up’.

“But isn’t that only at 3pm?” Terezi asked reluctant to get up and leave the conversation.

“Yeah but I don’t have a watch on me. Hey Gamzee, you know what time it is?” Kanaya asked already putting her book in her bag

“A man with one watch knows what time it is; a man with two watches is never quite sure.” He answered thoughtfully

“Dude, for once in your life can you just answer ‘I don’t know’?” Sollux asked a bit annoyed but nevertheless all of them were getting up and soon Karkat reluctantly waved them off as they left for the building far on the right.

“You’ve got some weird ass friends dude.” Dave remarked once they started heading to their dorm

“Hey!” Karkat exclaimed defensively “I mean sure they’re annoying and fucking psycho. I mean I really wouldn’t be surprised if Terezi had killed someone in the past, but-“ Karkat was once again having trouble phrasing his thoughts “Still, they are probably the only ones who are sometimes, more or less tolerable to be around.” He said stuffing his hands into his pockets

“That was truly the most beautiful declaration of love I’ve ever heard.” Dave said smirking once again

“It’s not a declaration of anything you butt trumpet!” Karkat replied shoving him in the shoulder slightly

“It could be a declaration of love or independence, but don’t fool yourself man, when your caring is reaching transcendence. You shout and you scowl like you’re craving your vengeance, then you frown and you pout when you’re not in attendance.” Dave dropped that beat like a hot potato

“Fuck that shit, you’re walking home alone.” Karkat said with a disgusted look as he took the other path that lead…fuck knows where, this was Dave’s first day here how the fuck would he know that.

“But you can’t deny our love!” Dave managed to shout across the entire campus yard to Karkat and saw him raise a middle finger high up in the air for him to see


	2. The Justin Timberlake of Campus

3 weeks later

Studying had just begun for Dave, and unlike the dreaded years of high school, he was pretty stoked to start learning about music and getting into the mixing business. He wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but instant recognition and spending his days perfecting his sick beat making skills were definitely there somewhere. But those mostly unrealistic expectations were soon crumbled on his very first day.

His very first lecture was history, which was odd for Dave. What sort of history could there be? Well it turned out there was a lot of it. The lecturer talked about their study plan throughout most of the first lecture and then began teaching them on the history of classical music. And as it turned out, Dave wouldn’t be able to learn what he wanted to in the first year at all. All of the subjects were more general, setting the base of their musical knowledge before they move on to specific studies next year. Dave would be lying if he said he hadn’t heard something about that, but his mind usually tended to zone out and ignore all the boring stuff. Because hey did you know that a shit tone of years ago there was some douche named Bach or someone with a short middle name like ‘van’, who made even more boring music? _Fascinating_.

Though, it seemed that he was the only one in the class who was surprised at this turn of their study plan. It was almost as if like everyone else actually took the time to read their schedule online _before_ the studies began. _Fucking losers_.

So far he didn’t see anyone in his class that would be worth hanging out with. Except for maybe this girl who sat at the front, her name was Aradia if Dave remembered right, and another guy named Cronus. Those two seemed to know what they were doing and what the lecturer was talking about.

Another surprise for Dave was his room. It wasn’t anything that he had expected it to be. Dave could barely call that a room, more like a walk-in closet by the size of it. It was one of the few rooms on campus for only two people. The wallpapers were dark, faded and were starting to peel off at the edges, there was a single chair standing in the middle of the room and a slightly larger than average nightstand by the window that was supposed to serve as a desk. On the left was their bunk bed, which’s stability was quite questionable. Karkat immediately called the top bed his own to which Dave responded by making a handful of gay sex related jokes.

And to top it all off, they had a constant visitor in their dorm. While Dave didn’t mind hanging out with Karkat’s friends every other day or so, he _did_ mind when Gamzee was basically always present in their room. He had the nerve to lie on his bed, bring the stench of weed with him and smile like a god damn creep every time he laid his eyes on him.

Gamzee proclaimed that he had grown attached to living in this dorm (his room used to be a few doors away from theirs) and that he felt a strong emotional and spiritual attachment to it or whatever, that he wasn’t quite ready to leave behind yet.

At least that was what Dave managed to catch before Gamzee started talking in quotes again, something about ‘Before I travelled my road, I was my road’, that was when he zoned out and got back to studying. All the while Dave tried to keep calm, he was pretty damn embarrassed about his little outburst on his first day and he sure as hell didn’t want that to happen again.

Karkat wasn’t too happy about these visits either. But the clown was immune to Karkat’s threats and insults and reacted only if he started to use force and physically push him out of the room.

Well at least there was one good thing about this, Dave thought. The Gamzee thing was probably the only thing that he and Karkat agreed on, which made it quite easy to live with him. It’s true what they say, that a common hate brings two people together. In this case, the hate for Gamzee made Karkat forget that he hated Dave as well, and most importantly it also helped Dave keep himself chill.

Today however, was one of those days when everything seemed to go wrong and generally suck for Dave. He barely got any sleep due to a party happening next door, he had history lectures again and got assigned his very first project that was due next week. It was going to be a pain in his ass. He got back to his dorm exhausted and pissed off at himself and wanted to just flop down on his bed and take a long nap. But, there was a mop of messy jet black hair already occupying his bed. It almost seemed that Gamzee didn’t even go to lectures at all and existed purely to stay in their room and annoy Dave.

“Leave, Gamzee.” Dave said firmly, dropping his bag by the bed and taking a seat on the chair.

“I’m not ready, not just yet.” He replied, slowly opening his eyes and hollowing his cheeks against the cigarette in his mouth.

“I don’t fucking care.” He said flatly, being careful about not raising his tone too much “I’ve been busting my ass in lectures all day and I deserve that bed so get your stinky ass off of it.”

“This bed isn’t that small, I’m sure we can share.” Gamzee suggested, smiling widely and looking up at him “I can tuck you in, make sure you get a pleasant motherfucking nap.” The words were rolling off lazily from his mouth as if to rub it in Dave’s face just how relaxed and comfortable he was.

It was clear that Gamzee wasn’t going to leave until he was pulled from the bed, but Dave didn’t have the energy nor the will power to do that. He briefly considered napping on Karkat’s bed, but realized he couldn’t fall asleep with that asshole there anyway. Dave watched as Gamzee flicked off the ash from his cig on their floor and momentarily glanced at his katana by the other side of the bed. _One day_ Dave thought bitterly. He turned to his desk where he could start working on his project instead.

“Do you ever wonder if there’s a god out there?” Gamzee asked after a minute of silence as Dave turned on his laptop and started gathering his notes.

Dave closed his eyes and counted to five.

“Maybe there isn’t a higher power after all, ‘cause I mean there’s this saying that there’s no real difference between the grass and the man who mows it.” Gamzee thought out loud “But then again, who is responsible for the miracles that we witness every day? Like, just this morning when I woke up I really wanted to smoke a joint.” _Well gee isn’t that surprising_. “And there was exactly one roll left, it was just meant to be. Miracles.” He said once again shaking his head with a smile, quieting down. Dave heaved a sigh of relief and started closely reading his notes and comparing them with the information online.

 “When you think about it,” Gamzee started after two minutes of silence “every single one of us is a miracle, so perhaps everyone is also a god-“

“Oh my god shut the fuck up.” Dave replied. His voice shook a bit from the frustration. Well, there went his ignore-his-existence plan.

“You seem a little under the blue today, Dave.” Gamzee noted staring up at him from his heavy eyelids. Dave just shot him a glare, but realized it wasn’t really visible because of his shades. _God damn it._

“So what is it?” Gamzee asked “Maybe you just need a word of wisdom to set your mind at peace.” He offered while rubbing his hand on Dave’s knee in a supposedly comforting way, but it was just creepy to be honest. Dave was already used to the constant invasion of his personal space though. He hung out with Terezi often after all.

Dave knew Gamzee probably didn’t give a shit about how he felt and that he was just fishing for more material to tease him on. Nonetheless, he still opened his mouth.

“College just doesn’t make sense to me.” he said quietly feeling incredibly tired all of a sudden. Gamzee nodded all knowingly as if he understood exactly what he was talking about, which of course, he didn’t.

“I too was confused about life when I first came here.” He said like he was talking about a distant past and not something that happened last year. “But we have to choose the right path and embrace it. And yours, Dave, is one of a poet.”

“For the last fucking time I’m not a po-“

“And as our brother Confucius said, we have to decide: to be or not to be, that is the motherfucking question.” He finished with a satisfied smile, taking a drag and blowing out thick smoke slowly, savoring it.

“That was Hamlet you nimbrod clown.” Dave said with a sigh.

“Whoa, don’t force your beliefs on me.”

Dave’s hand started shaking slightly, it’s like everything he said made his blood boil and not in the good, hot type of way. He didn’t know what made him think he could stand being around this guy.

“Okay nut brain let’s get something clear.” Dave said barely controlling his tone of voice. He closed his laptop swiftly and loudly. The sharp sound got Gamzee’s attention and he lifted his head a bit looking at Dave with curious eyes.

“I don’t like you.” he said flatly. “I’m about two seconds away from taking my katana and giving you a haircut.” He was about to start visibly shaking from the fury. “I don’t give a shit how you feel about this room, you have your own place now. Go have your emotional bond there, piss on it, mark it yours I don’t fucking care just leave us alone.” He poured out all in one breath while Gamzee stared at him with an unreadable expression.

Dave didn’t have the patience to wait for him to respond and he didn’t really want to hear what he had to say anyway. So, Dave stormed out of the room and headed for the library. He passed Karkat along the hallway and gave him a curt nod while Karkat narrowed his eyes suspiciously at him, but said nothing. He was cool like that. Dave turned on the corner, but still heard Karkat screaming upon opening the door to their room

“You do not live here you fungus!”

…

The blond finally managed to relax and get his shit back together while walking across campus to the library. It was chillier that day, the autumn wind made the ones still wearing tee’s and shorts shiver slightly. Although, the change in the weather didn’t really change the fact that Dave was wearing the same thing that he was wearing when he had first arrived here. You’d think he was just lazy and didn’t do his laundry. But he just had a lot of the exact same clothes.

Dave now realized that Gamzee was doing this just to tease him and drive him up the wall on purpose like he did with Karkat. Gamzee quickly discovered the things that made Dave tick and started using it against him. It was the oldest trick in the book and frankly it was kinda lame. It was almost as lame as Egbert’s pranks. This was the kind of immature crap that you’d expect from a snotty five year old (which was strangely an accurate description of the asshole) who thinks that by saying the opposite of everything you do will get under your skin.

But the worst part was that it worked. God he hated that clown.

His university had a very large library that was open 24/7. Dave wasn’t a big fan of books, and honestly this would be the last place where you would see someone as awesome and rad as Dave being. But with the current situation, he really wouldn’t mind staying here for a few weeks, tucking himself in with a few thick dictionaries.

This was the first time in a few weeks that Dave didn’t play it cool, but it was okay, he was okay, it didn’t get to him at all. In fact, he wasn’t even going to think about it anymore. He thought as he flipped the pages of a useful book about symphonic orchestras and not thinking about punching anyone. That would be ridiculous.

His peace didn’t last for long though. Dave heard someone approaching him at the back of the library with a happy skip in their step that could belong to only one person he knew.

The third-year curly haired blonde with a simple, yet tight fitted outfit, that got the attention of half of the library, stopped right in front of his table. She smiled widely and messed the top of Dave’s hair playfully.

“Hey Davey, how’s my favorite cousin doing?” he pulled his head back instinctively, but didn’t bother to fix his hair.

“Fucking sweet and so chill. Like I’m just so chill. I’m like a cone of frosty caramel flavored ice cream with fucking sprinkles on top in a room full of flaming meat balls.”

Roxy looked him over with a thoughtful expression

“You really are good with words.” She took a seat next to him and leaned in closer as if telling a secret “Rumor has it that you’ve given up your music career to become a p-“

“If that sentence ends with the word poet, I swear to god I will smack you across the face with a dead fish.” Dave poured out in less than three seconds.

“Whoa what’s with the tight ass attitude, Strider?” she asked taken aback, fixing the bright pink clip in her hair. “People are starting to know who you are, this is good!” she said brightly

“That’s not how people were supposed to know who I am.” Dave sighed annoyed “All I’m sayin’ is, I don’t wanna be known as the sensitive douche like Poe or young Justin Timberlake y’know? I gotta be the one who’s bringing sexy back, not crying rivers.”

Roxy put a comforting hand on his shoulder

“It’s okay Davey, I’m sure no one thinks that you’re a denim wearing pop star from the 90’s. Actually…” she said as an idea hit her “During the party next week I can introduce you to new awesome people and get you some decent friends.” Dave almost forgot that Roxy was known and loved by almost everyone here. She was like the Beyonce of this campus.

“That’s a sweet motherfucking offer. It would be hella cool to get to know some people.” Dave thought out loud.

“Of course it will be! I’ll talk you up to some people while everyone’s getting drunk and before you know it, you’ll be the star of the party.” She said gleefully thinking over her plan.

“That’s the best motherfucking plan I’ve ever heard.” Dave remarked. His mood went up considerably, not that anyone could notice it though. Every year there’s a party held at the beginning of the year to welcome freshmen and supposedly it’s one of the wildest parties. Dave wasn’t a big drinker, but he loved being there when shit went down.

“Oh god I’m so excited I can’t wait for it.” She squealed excitedly. “It will be good to get you out of Terezi’s little circle too.” Roxy added as an afterthought

“Nah, I don’t mind them. They’re pretty okay I guess.”

“Really?” Roxy asked narrowing her eyes.

“Yeah, they’re all kinda cool once you get passed the sense that they want to murder you.” Dave shrugged while Roxy leaned back on the wall and closed her eyes thinking.

“Well if you say so. Still, Terezi is a bit of a psycho.” she began counting them down on her fingers. “Despite being the best in his class, there’s a reason why people call Sollux ‘two-face’, and while Kanaya is hot and not a bad kisser she’s like _really_ boring.” She said rolling her eyes “So it’ll be good to get you to hang out with someone who’s both cool and emotionally stable.” She looked at him all-knowingly. “Speaking of emotional instability, where’s Karkitty?” she asked sitting upright.

“He’s probably repainting our room with Makara’s blood.” The thought of drawing blood from that creep was strangely endearing and Dave almost smiled.

“Oh man, he’s still not leaving your room?” Roxy asked sympathetically “Oh shit my break is almost over, gotta fly.” She panicked looking at her phone and getting up from the chair “Just don’t hurt Gamzee too much okay? ‘Cause I can’t hook you up with people if you’re not at the party.” She said like it was obvious.

“Uhm, what?” Dave asked confused. What did that asshole had to do with anything?

“I’m saying don’t get banned from entering the party.” Roxy explained stopping at the end of the table

“Why would hurting Gamzee get me banned?” he asked still not seeing the connection. For a cool guy, Dave wasn’t that sharp.

“Cause he’s hosting the party, dumbass.”  Roxy rolled her eyes before ruffling his hair one last time and dashing out of the library. The last conversation Dave had with him flashed quickly across his mind. _Well shit._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really thought that Roxy should be in this fic, I don't know why. The title is a bit...well... you can see, but I suck with those things, that's the best I could come up with. Anyway, I hope everyone had great holidays.


	3. Symphony by Dave, Movement 1: Submission

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry that this took so long, but I tried making it as perfect as I could. I'm apologize if my feeble attempts at humour are not that great. Anyway, enjoy! (p.s. the next one is gonna be a big one)

“So…we’re good then?” Dave asked with a resigned slump of his shoulders, stuffing his hands into his pockets. He couldn’t believe he actually had to do that.

“Of course brother. It’s all fine.” Gamzee took a step closer and looked down at him from his sleepy eyelids, shaking his head slightly. He probably wasn’t even aware of it.

Dave was really glad he caught him when he was stoned out of his mind, because maybe there was a chance that Gamzee wouldn’t remember this. God it felt so fucking degrading trying to apologize to this bastard. Dave really hoped that the popularity and recognition at the party was going to make up for all the embarrassment he had to go through just now. At least Karkat wasn’t in the room, he’d never hear the end of it.

“So like you’re not mad and stuff?” Dave asked for what hopefully would be the last time while trying to sound only half-heartedly apologetic.

“No, I never was.” he said sincerely…or sarcastically, it was really hard to tell with this guy. “I understand completely what you’re going through.” He put a hand on his shoulder like a father would and nodded. Okay now _that_ was definitely ironic.

Instead of relief Dave felt somewhat even angrier at his response. Yesterday he basically told him he hated his guts, not to mention the constant verbal abuse Gamzee had to deal with from Karkat and he was just fine with all of it? How fucked up in the head do you have to be to accept this kind of bullshit? Some part of Dave wanted Gamzee to lash out, get angry for once in his life and not be so o-fucking-kay with everything and everyone. It was infuriating.

“Okay that’s cool.” Dave said nodding. His cool kid façade was in place and unchanging.

“You know Dave, you and I are not that different.” Gamzee thought out loud stepping back.

“I doubt that.” Dave deadpanned. He wasn’t about to start kissing his ass just because of some party. He did what he had to do, he apologized. It certainly didn’t mean they were suddenly going to go on a friend cruise across the god damn Atlantic. Dave had more pride than that.

“Oh, but I think we are.” He shook his head smiling “Because it’s like the great Baba Ram Dass said-“

“Is that even a real person?”

“-only that in you which is me can hear what I’m saying.” He explained to Dave like an adult trying to prove to a four year old why two plus two equals four and not a bucket. The fact that Gamzee was half a head taller than him wasn’t helping the situation either.

Dave took a deep breath steadying himself. He had to keep in mind that he had to be on his best behavior until the party. Of course by ‘best behavior’ he meant that Dave had to refrain from punching or yelling at him, which he could totally do.

“Sure, whatever man.”

Gamzee looked him over with a slightly smug smile, but maybe Dave was just imagining it.

“I’m so glad you got this off your chest, Dave.” He came closer once again, placing his hands on his shoulders. What was with all the touching, couldn’t he keep his claws to himself? “Whenever two motherfuckers have a heart-to-heart it strengthens the special bond they have. So I appreciate you opening up your sensitive soul to me.” Gamzee ever so slightly leaned in a bit closer and ushered in a quieter tone that was definitely smug this time “It was quite an intimate experience.” _That fucker_

Dave clenched his teeth slightly. The dickpipe knew his pressure points and he also knew Dave wasn’t going to do anything about the fact that he was pressing or more like stomping on them. Maybe it was a ruse Gamzee was doing to see how long Dave would hold out? If he didn’t find the mere sight of him appalling, Dave would probably admirably nod his head, shake his hand and say “well played”.  

“Let’s wrap this business up. C’mere you motherfucker.” Gamzee suddenly embraced Dave before he had any time to comprehend what was happening or protest. Gamzee covered him with his entire body in one rib-crushing hug. Dave had no means of escape, not until the clown was good and ready to let him go.

Hot blood was rushing and creeping up Dave’s neck and up to his face, his breathing became quicker and ragged since his lungs were pressed up like in a waffle iron. He had the sudden urge to claw his hands into the stoner’s back, dig in deeply, rip something, or draw blood. Dave wasn’t sure why though, from one side there were thousands of reasons, it was everything about this creep and the situation he was putting Dave in, but from another there was no specific reason either. He just knew that he wanted to inflict damage of some kind, any kind. Every fiber of his body was shaking with the need. There was a sick yet overwhelming and powerful feeling of satisfaction from the thought of shoving this guy’s face into a brick wall. The fact that he could feel every inch of Gamzee pressed against him and his nose was buried in his messy hair was only making the feeling stronger.

Gamzee took his fucking time though, while Dave clenched his fists tightly and held his breath. When he let go with an even wider smile and stepped back and out of Dave’s personal space, the blond drew back his hands quickly and locked them behind his back, his left hand clenching the wrist of the right one.

His heart was still pumping furiously, but the flush on his face wasn’t that obvious. The rage dissolved just as quickly as it appeared.

Dave made the obvious conclusion that he wouldn’t do well in the shoes of Bruce Banner. He’d be hulking out too often, but mostly because Bruce is a fucking nerd and Dave was too cool for that.

“That really wasn’t necessary.” Dave’s voice was controlled and calm.

“Oh I think it was.” he looked around the room with a confused expression like he was looking for something “I think I’m late for something.” he wondered or more like asked himself.

“Yeah dude, you need to get moving.”

“Why? Am I in the way?” Gamzee asked after a pause distracted, the previous thought flow already forgotten.

“You just said you were late for something.” Dave reminded him. Gamzee drew his eyebrows together concentrating hard.

“Oh! I’m supposed to be getting to class!” He exclaimed, his face clearing up and spreading into a wide smile. Dave looked at his phone, it was 6pm. All of the lectures have already ended.

“Yeah that must be it.”

“Sometimes things just fall out of your head without a reason.” He swatted his hand absentmindedly and then suddenly a mysterious look overcame his features “And do you want to know how or why they come back to us?”

“No.”

“Miracles.” Gamzee smiled from ear to ear

“I’m pretty sure that’s bullshit.” Dave dropped after a sigh

“Hey don’t judge a brother just for believin’.” He couldn’t even act sincerely offended. _God damn pathetic_. “Alright I’ll leave you alone so you can gather your thoughts and write something deep and meaningful.” He looked very serious while saying that and headed towards the door.

Not five seconds after saying his goodbyes and shutting the door he was already back, knocking on it. Dave thought that getting rid of him this easily was too good to be true.

“I remembered something.” He explained excitedly “Wow what a day, things aren’t falling out of my head like they usually do.” He said dreamily staring off into the distance. “This isn’t just like another day another dollar, more like another day, another mi-.”

“Gamzee.”

“Yeah?” he was sidetracked again

“What did you remember?”

“Right! Could you lend a CD to your good motherfucker?” What could he want with a thing like that? Who even uses CD’s anymore? The realization that he didn’t give a rat’s fart about that came quickly so he kept his mouth shut. Besides, Dave was anxious to get him out his radically combed hair already so he spotted the first CD case somewhere on Karkat’s pile of stuff, saw that it was a rewritable one and grabbed it without a second thought. Dave refrained from shoving it to him and handed it.

“Take it just delete whatever’s on there.”

“Thank you so much man, you like saved my life here.” He twirled the case in his hands, admirably watching how the light danced on the shiny surface.

“Yeah.” He dropped and closed the door on him, hearing the clown finally walk away.

Dave dragged his feet back to his bed and flopped down on it, extending his legs for that long needed stretch. The tension from his muscles started easing out of him as he felt himself sinking into the softness of the bed bit by bit. The sheets and the creaking wood beneath the mattress along with the frames of the bed were soaked to the core in a different scent. It was heavy, Dave could feel the weight of it sort of pressing him down, it had a bit of dulled sweetness in it, an obvious bitterness from the cigarettes and a hell load of pretentious asswipe just twirling in the air.

The sensible step would’ve been for him to open up the window, but that meant getting up from the bed and that wasn’t gonna happen. He was already settled in too well to make himself get up, he’d rather plug his nose. Dave sort of understood now why Gamzee wouldn’t get out of this bed by his own will. But it could be only his tiredness talking.

Sleep wouldn’t come though. Was it the smell, the frustration from today or the stress, either way his eyes weren’t closing. Instead, he reached for his headphones and the first notebook that he could find and put on some classical music, doodling mindlessly on the notebook.

His roommate got back when Dave had just gone through the first two movements of the symphony by Bach? Beethoven? Something with a ‘B’ he was sure of it. He checked his iPod, it was Tchaikovsky. Close enough.

“’Sup.” Dave greeted him dropping the notebook behind him on the desk and sliding the headphones down so they were around his neck. Karkat merely grunted in response putting down his bag.

“So how was hanging out at Terezi’s, you guys got to first base yet?” Dave asked casually, sitting up more properly.

“What the fuck, Strider?” he stated more than asked. “Where is this sack of bullshit coming from? I wasn’t at Terezi’s!”

“Yeah you were.”

“I was out doing some socializing for your information. Making connections, talking to people, I’m sort of a big deal here. And certainly no ‘bases’ were being covered.” Karkat even made ironic air quotes and Dave had to bite down a laugh.

“Yeah okay I believe the last bit.”

“What is your fucking fascination with me and Terezi? This is where you get off, isn’t it you sick fuck? I honestly don’t know where you’re getting all this stuff about me and her from-“

“Her shades are on your head.” Dave deadpanned.

Karkat stopped his rambling and experimentally raised his hand to his hair, felt the rims of the shades with his fingers and slowly brought them down to inspect if they were truly Terezi’s. The whole process was quite dramatic reminding Dave of a horror movie when a devastating or intense plot detail is revealed. Because Karkat was definitely staring at them with horror while a deep blush began coloring his cheeks.

“Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” he lifted his head finally, accusing him

“And miss _that_ look on your face? Never.” Dave smirked

“Well,” Karkat fidgeted from one foot to another “I’d still prefer if you kept these accusations to yourself, I-I don’t want them reaching her understand?” Dave raised an eyebrow at him and Karkat hurried to add “She’s a good friend of mine I don’t want things to get awkward.”

“I wasn’t gonna say anything.” He shrugged “But seriously were you two like a thing?”

“You know what I think I’m just gonna spill it all out, clear this fart filled air once and for all, and tell you the whole story that me and Terezi were- oh wait, that’s none of your fucking business.” Karkat dropped and sat on the chair.

“Whatever dude, I was gonna offer you some solid advice there.”

“Advise me?” the shorter one asked outraged “Like I would need advice from you! And like-“ he shifted uncomfortably in his chair “just hypothetically so I could prove that, w-what sort of advice would you give?” his eyes were glued to the table and his voice was considerably softer.

“Well for one thing if you wanna get it on with her, quit being so mean to her, you know you don’t really mean it, but she doesn’t. And learn to be fuckin’ cool man like me, ‘cause it’s a fact that chicks just love me, I can’t help it.”

“Dave the only person who thinks you’re cool is you and it’s just fucking embarrassing for everyone, but mostly for me.”

“Yeah like I’m gonna believe that. And anyway, learn to take a fucking hint. If she’s not interested, back the fuck off yo. Find someone else who tolerates you.” Karkat stayed quiet for a few moments with a troubled look on his face

“Okay maybe that’s not totally terrible advice.” He muttered under his breath

“Yeah I know. We’ll hook you up with another psycho at the party, which reminds me…” Dave sat up a bit straighter “You gotta be nice to Gamzee this week.”

“The fuck for? Okay I guess I sorta get that I need to cool it down a bit and collect my scattered shit, and I’ll try to be nicer to Terezi and maybe Kanaya, but Gamzee is fucking pushing it man.”   

“Well apparently his stinky ass is hosting the party and we both need to get in there. Well I need it more than you, and if you piss him off he might not let both of us in, and I like have stuff to do there and I can’t be the loser who’s sitting out on this type of stuff.” Dave saw that Karkat was rolling his eyes and opened his mouth to respond. But sensing that the answer wasn’t going to be a good one Dave continued “And you need to get in there too. Socialize or whatever. I’m not saying that you gotta kiss his fucking ass or listen to his miracle lectures, but y’know, bring the yelling to a minimum. Man this is a big deal for me and could be for you too so-”

“Fine, I’ll behave.” Karkat sighed

“Seriously?” Dave asked drawing his eyebrows together

“Yeah, I’m not the total asshole that you think I am you know.” Karkat rolled his eyes again and turned towards the desk, picking out his notes from the clutter on it.

“Thanks. I know it’s gonna be hard not yelling at the juggalo, but it’s only temporary.”

“That fucking creep pisses me off so much.” He shook his head, talking more to himself than to his roommate.

“Everyone pisses you off.” Dave stated matter-of-factly.

“Well…not everyone.” Karkat shrugged now visibly turning away from him, rummaging through the stuff on the desk intensely “I guess you’re like pretty okay to be aro- did you draw dicks all over the history notebook?!” he shouted all of a sudden, turning to the blond holding the evidence in his hand.

“I wouldn’t know anything about that.” Dave replied sinking into the bed once again, putting on his headphones.

“It’s not even mine you asshole how am I supposed to explain this?!” he rambled on, but Dave merely pointed to his headphones and shrugged mouthing ‘can’t hear you’ even though there was no music playing. But seeing as Karkat was on a roll on one of his rants he figured he might as well get back to where he left off.

Dave sank in properly into the bed once again and the smell wasn’t bothering him that much anymore. Karkat’s mouth and whole body was moving with every other word that was a swear as he was passionately ranting about something. The dramatic third movement of the symphony was drowning his voice out, giving his speech quite a background that was suiting him quite well.

…

Getting through the week was actually easier than it seemed. Dave thought that it would be quite a mental challenge for him, but on the contrary the week had gone by as smooth as his rhymes. His project, even though it wasn’t the best, was received quite well by the lecturer. Dave was slowly getting the hang of classical music, and though he’d never admit it out loud to a living soul, he kind of even liked it.

But what was really surprising, was his totally chill attitude towards Gamzee. Dave didn’t have another episode ever since he lost his shit and shouted at him nor did he have any further sadistic thoughts. Well of course there were always those occasional ‘I’m going to push you over and fart on your face if you don’t move the fuck out of my way’ thoughts, but they are just a part of that wonderful college experience. But none of those thoughts concerned Gamzee, which was the important bit. He couldn’t say that he had stopped disliking the freak, nor that he was getting used to him, but somewhere in his mind he just accepted the fact that the stoner was gonna be there and in his life for some time and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

In fact, Dave stopped talking to him altogether, because he figured that the best way to avoid saying anything too rude towards him was not saying anything at all. During this time, Gamzee was fussing a bit at Dave’s lack of response like a small, spoiled child who didn’t get enough attention. But this was only at first, after a few days it seemed that Gamzee grew bored of it. He was still there, almost every day in their room and everywhere he went, but he wasn’t trying to get under his skin anymore or at least not that obviously. 

He could tune out Gamzee’s rambling, which was mostly harmless now, and it was peaceful in his head, much quieter. The poe- I mean rapper could properly organize his motherfucking thoughts together and there was more room for his ill beats. Dave’s mind during that week was definitely a passive and serene place to be in, and perhaps a little empty and hollow…

Dave even got to the point where he didn’t care if Gamzee was there while he was studying, mixing new beats or on a skype call with his sister Rose or Egbert who was traveling around the world like the adventure nerd that he was. Meanwhile the older man lay on the bed quietly, watching Dave from the corner of his eye.

It honestly did seem that Gamzee was getting bored of the little game he was playing with Dave, or maybe he was thinking of new ways to win seeing as his old tactics weren’t working anymore? Who knew what was going on in that funny little head of his? And frankly who the fuck cared? It was a waste of time thinking about stuff like that. He was just a god damn stoner who was wasting his life and annoying others so who would give a shit about any of that? That’s right. The answer was Dave Strider.


	4. Symphony by Dave, Movement 2: Rage

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry that this took so long, but I hope this long ass chapter will make up for it

Both of the freshmen were making their way through the little streets, taking turns on every corner it seemed until they reached and old looking apartment complex that was just outside the edge of their campus.

Other people rode their new fancy cars to the place mostly just to show off, while others took the bus purely for their stand on saving the environment. But if you broke it down it was just another form of showing off their god damn pretentiousness because it was only a ten minute walk.

“Remind me again, what is the fucking point of waltzing over there almost an hour late?” Karkat complained for what was the hundredth time already and Dave swore every time he sounded even more sarcastic.

“Because we’re cool like that. Well I am, but I’m letting you tag along with me. You’re welcome.” Karkat let out an angry ‘hmph’ sound

“I fail to see any ‘coolness’ in missing out on half of the fun.”

“You’re getting it all wrong. By now they’ve all warmed up and are about to start doing stupid shit or being embarrassingly honest. We’re gonna be just in time.” Dave took out his phone once again to check on the address as they were looking for the right building.

“Is that why you told Terezi and the others to get there earlier?” Karkat asked stopping in his tracks.

“Hey this must be it.” The blond said looking up at the four storey apartment building with the number 38 on it. As Dave expected there were a bunch of shiny Volvos and a few sporty looking mustangs parked out front. Dave lifted his head and saw the upper balcony occupied with a few of his group mates and other people he had been seeing on campus having a smoke and laughing a bit too loudly. He smirked slightly. They were right on time.

They made their way upstairs wordlessly. Dave was feeling pretty confident about all this given the peaceful week he’s had and the deal he made with Roxy. Not that his ego needed any more boosting.

The door was instantly swung open and the first thing that met them was the blaring, loud music, drowning out Kanaya’s excited greeting while she was trying to balance herself as to not spill her drink. Dave waved a feeble hello and stepped into the narrow hallway sweeping over the place with his shade covered eyes.

The first impression he got was that it was a cramped, but cozy place. The warm golden lighting was complimenting the wooden furniture and soft color walls quite nicely. There was a large opening at the left of the hallway. Dave took a few steps to get a proper look and it turned out this wasn’t such a cramped place after all. The gap opened up to a large living room where all of the commotion and partying was happening. There were almost twenty people in that room but there still seemed quite enough space for them to move around or dance.

On his right was a door that was slightly ajar revealing a regular sized kitchen where he could see more of the same wooden furniture and a group of people hanging out. Dave recognized Aradia and gave her a silent ‘sup nod while she waved back to him smiling friendly. Right in front of him was another door that probably led to a small bathroom or closet. A bit further on in the living room Dave spotted another hallway that lead to a few bedrooms.

What the hell, how did Gamzee manage to get a place like this and why were there only two people living here? He could easily accommodate the entire cast of Friends in here and still have a spare guest room probably.

Dave looked back at Karkat who was still standing in the doorway. Kanaya was rambling drunkenly about something, while the freshman stared at her incredulously at the range of emotions coming from of her mouth, body and facial expressions.

“Kan, where the hell did you wander off? Who is at the door?” Terezi stepped into hallway effortlessly, her cane was tucked under her arm. She stopped in her tracks and sniffed the air slightly.

“Hey, Dave!” she exclaimed turning to him. Since her eyes were covered behind her shades just like Dave’s it seemed like she was staring right at him, even though that was impossible. “I thought you weren’t coming at all! We were supposed to meet here early, remember?” she confronted him, but nonetheless she was excited about his presence there. She wasn’t as happily intoxicated as Kanaya, but Dave could smell the few fruity cocktails with a strong kick coming off from her.

“Something came up.” Dave shrugged casually leaning near her so she’d hear him. The blind girl dropped the subject because she sensed another presence in the room.

“Karkat!” she exclaimed loudly “I thought I smelled a cutie in the room.” a roguish, playful smile was playing on her lips before she came closer and embraced him. Karkat bit down on his lip trying to stop the instinctive insulting retorts escaping his mouth.

“Hey Kanaya, would you show me around the place a bit? I don’t wanna end up taking a piss in an urn and then have Makara’s family’s stinky ghost haunting my dick.” Dave said leading her out of the room while she giggled at his words. The blond turned briefly to his friend who was unsurely hugging Terezi back with a confused look on his face that was silently screaming ‘what is happening?’ Dave gave him a thumbs up, smirking ever so slightly before following Kanaya to the large living room.

…

Kanaya got distracted and drifted off to chat with her other friends just after showing Dave the living room. It was a good thing she studied literature and not tourism. But he didn’t mind. He didn’t really need that tour per say anyway. Dave tapped his foot along the beat of the song and texted Roxy ‘plan make me famous is on, where r u?’

Meanwhile he went to the kitchen where he was surprised and pleased to find that the music wasn’t as loud there and people could properly talk. That was probably why there were at least ten people crammed up in the tiny place.

He went up to Aradia to chat a bit to pass the time until Roxy showed up. She was cute and at the top of his class, and Dave would’ve probably had a thing for her if it weren’t for the fact that she was so god damn shady and mysterious, besides it seemed that Sollux was interested in her and Dave wasn’t going to be a cockblock.  

After a while though, he dragged his feet back to the living room looking over it. Dave kept checking his phone every few minutes in case he didn’t feel it vibrating and Roxy finally responded to him. She was nowhere to be seen and Dave was getting nervous, he was relying on Roxy to carry out the plan so much he didn’t even form a backup plan. No, he was too cool to freak out over something like this. Fuck it, he would just have to handle it on his own. But even then he didn’t have a clue which people he should befriend and how to go about it.

“Dave, you made it here.” The blond felt an arm snake around his shoulders. He sighed. Dave really didn’t have time to deal with him as well. Reluctantly he turned his head and met eyes with the host of the party, who was leaning a bit on him and smiling. Gamzee’s eyes were steadily fixed on Dave, he didn’t reek of alcohol or any kind of smokes. Hell, even his hair looked like it had been washed recently.

“Wouldn’t have missed it for the world.” he answered calmly, looking around the living room.

“Are you waiting for someone?” he asked following his gaze.

“Yeah, do you know if Roxy is here?”

“I haven’t seen her around, looks like your date stood you up.” Gamzee was trying to sound sincere and apologetic, but his smile was saying otherwise. This was why Dave hoped that he didn’t have to interact with him much throughout the night. It would be a shame to ruin all that peace with him that he worked so hard to achieve. And he wasn’t going to let that happen. But there was a mischievous and slightly provocative twinkle in Gamzee’s sober eyes, the kind he used to have when he was teasing him, and something at the back of Dave’s mind stirred restlessly.

“She’s my cousin dude, ew.” Dave replied a bit disgusted. He felt the hand on him grip his shoulder more firmly and he involuntarily tensed up.

“Ah, of course, I should have known you are a family man.” he nodded to himself. “Where’s your drink?” he asked gesturing to Dave’s empty hands. He shrugged, sort of hoping that the gesture would shake Gamzee’s arm away.

“I’m not much of a drinker.” He explained searching the room for anyone he knew so that he could excuse himself from this conversation.

“Well you have to take the welcome shot just like everyone else.” He said grabbing one of the many small plastic shots from a table nearby filled with fuck knows what and offered it to Dave. He glanced at it questioningly. “C’mon Dave, where’s your team spirit?” Gamzee frowned slightly ironically.

Dave gave in and took it, one little shot never hurt anyone anyway especially if it meant that Gamzee would lay off him already. He downed the little plastic shot in one go, not even bothering to look at the liquid and instead looking right at the mysterious host of the party. Gamzee watched intently as he drank as if he was a parent making sure the kid drank his cough syrup properly. The liquid that went down was bitter and tasted a bit like pears that sweetened the burning in his throat. The familiar warmth travelled from his throat to his stomach almost soothingly.

“See? That wasn’t so bad.” Gamzee said taking the empty shot from him still keeping his eyes on Dave the entire time. Why was he so god damn smug?

“Sure if sweetened dog urine is the best that you’re serving tonight.” Dave bit back with a bored expression.

“Hey, it’s my own recipe.” He looked a bit hurt this time, finally taking his arm away, but remaining in Dave’s personal space.

“I bet it is.” he dropped. “Excuse me.” Dave ventured quickly away from him towards the main living room table and sitting next to the first person he knew which turned out to be Sollux. Dave introduced himself to almost everyone around him, took a few collective shots and let himself relax. He figured that if more people knew who he was, the better. He would ask Roxy later on about the connections which would be valuable to him the most. It looked like she wasn’t going to show up anyway.

Though personally, Dave liked the girl sitting next to him, Jade was her name if he remembered right. Maybe she seemed a bit too naïve and soft hearted, but her presence was a mood lifter for sure. Then there was a guy named Rufioh, who turned out to be Tavros’s older brother. He was the kind of guy that got along with everyone and seemed cool in general, even almost as cool as Dave. He was already a senior so he had loads of hilarious stories to tell and advices on what not to do. For instance, don’t pick up girls in a bar before making sure that they’re not your lecturers and never ever fall asleep at a college party. Another person who stuck in Dave’s mind was sitting right across from him. He didn’t properly catch her name, was it Friska? Riska? Something like that. What was it with all the weird ass names around here anyway? What sensible, loving parents would name their child fucking Friska or were they expecting a cat to pounce out of a vagina? She did resemble a cat in some ways though and Dave wasn’t a cat person. She was very snarky and tried to be everywhere and talk with everyone at the same time. He got a sense of dishonesty and hidden agenda coming off from her. The blond stayed clear of her for the night, she seemed like bad news.

A good hour passed like that. People were ushering him to come dance, but Dave didn’t dance, it just wasn’t something that he did. He’d much rather sit and watch everyone embarrass themselves on the dance floor.

Gamzee was hurrying across the house in the mean time, not staying in one place for too long. Even Dave had to admit that he wasn’t such a terrible host. Everything seemed in shape. He came over to sit next to their group of people out of breath and as always with the biggest smile on his face.

“How’s everybody doing?” he asked loudly, eagerly pouring himself a drink. There was a collective roar of excitement from about five people who have clearly had too much already. Gamzee laughed in response airily. “What about you Dave, why aren’t you dancing?” Gamzee asked turning to him, leaning closer so he’d hear him, there was a strong stench of alcohol coming off from him and Dave even wrinkled his nose.

“I don’t dance.” He stated curtly.

“Is that so?” Gamzee asked quietly with a smirk before turning to the rest of the group “Hey guys, I don’t know if you have met my good friend Dave here.” He pointed to the blond and the rest of the group turned their eyes on him, some were nodding indicating that they already knew him, others who joined recently were waving or saying hello. “Dave over here is a poet and a damn good one.” He explained with a smile. Some people snickered under their breaths while others waved it off.

“Gamzee maybe you should lay off the weed, cause if you can’t tell the difference between a rapper and a poet you’re gonna start eating shit thinking it’s chocolate.” Cronus piped up with a half mocking tone as laughter rolled down the table. Dave smirked proudly. He got ahead of him this time.

Gamzee’s smile dropped for a second, he shifted a bit uncomfortably, but suddenly even a wider, slightly lopsided smile spread across his features as he continued.

“Well he certainly has the soul of one, from the deep talks we’ve had I can tell you that he’s such a great listener and so emotional.”

Now he definitely got the attention of the entire group. Most of them raised their eyebrows, some turned to their friends whispering ‘oh my god’ to them and laughing afterwards, only a few still waved Gamzee’s words off.

“Okay well that’s bullshit.” Dave retorted before he could stop himself. Why was Gamzee suddenly interested in teasing him again?

“He’s quite modest and sensitive about it, oh maybe I shouldn’t have brought it up?” he asked concerned turning to him, but he could see right through his fucking bullshit. Dave’s face was getting flushed from the annoyance.

“See it’s been difficult for Dave to find his place and fit in.” Gamzee carried on “I mean even his sister is always analyzing and scrutinizing him for how he is, not to mention his school friends who don’t appreciate him, no wonder he turned out to be so closed up. And I just want him to let go.”

A shiver went through Dave’s entire body and his voice caught in his throat. He wanted to say something, he really did. He wanted to turn to the group and say that Gamzee had too much, he wanted to tell Gamzee that it was enough because he crossed a fucking line here. It was one thing when he was being insulted but his family and friends were a whole different deal. But he couldn’t do it, he couldn’t find his voice, and all he could do was sit there and feel himself being watched by at least a dozen pair of eyes. Gamzee carried on saying something else, but Dave didn’t really hear any of that. He had just about enough.

He stood up, the shots he took were sloshing around in his stomach and dizzying his head, but he kept upright and steady. Why should he sit around and listen to this bullshit? He walked past all of the strangers who were still chuckling and avoided looking at Gamzee altogether. But the second year wasn’t done with him yet. When Dave left the living room and entered the hallway thinking he would just chill out in one of the bedrooms and cool off, Gamzee stopped him by his arm, holding on to it. Whatever he said to the blond wasn’t registered as all he could feel and think about was the hand that was grasping his arm. The touch was burning him, he felt the need to cut off his sleeve before it burned through the fabric and to get that calming, chilly air on it. He couldn’t hear what anyone else was saying, nor the loud music, all of it was just one jumbled up noise. That something which was stirring in Dave’s head at the beginning of the evening was now stirring all over his face, chest, stomach and arms.

Before he could start comprehending his thoughts the collar of Gamzee’s shirt was already in his now free hand, half carrying, half throwing him to the nearest wall with all the strength he could gather.  The pictures on the wall fell down, glass shattering, the thin wall shaking, Gamzee wincing. But none of that reached Dave’s ears. He could only hear the blood pumping through his head and his own voice shouting.

“What the _fuck_ is your problem?!” He pulled Gamzee a bit closer, their noses slightly bumping, and then thudded against the wall once again for emphasis. Dave’s vision was blurring, but his grasp was firm, knuckles white.

Gamzee’s eyes were wide, not in fear but in surprise, he hissed from the second impact, but made no move to get away. Dave leaned in closer until Gamzee could feel him panting heavily on his face and raised his eyebrows, expecting an answer. The hand that was clenching the collar of his shirt squeezed it more tightly, urging him. It was pressing tightly and slightly painfully around his neck.

That was when Gamzee’s face broke into his familiar smug smile that looked a bit like a smirk. He was still fucking laughing at him. He had him at his fucking mercy and he was still made to feel like the loser. Dave’s arm started to shake from frustration as he tried lifting Gamzee up in the air a bit so the collar would be choking him. The power was going straight to Dave’s head with an almost uncontrollable need for more. Gamzee opened his mouth to say something but his words were stuck in his throat, quite literally. It was something incomprehensible, more like a breath than actual words, but it sounded a bit like ‘go on.’ and this time, even though he really wanted to, Dave couldn’t ignore the back flip in his stomach anymore.

It felt like his blood was boiling, there was so much heat around him and inside of him, like a volcano ready to erupt that was building up at the pit of his stomach. Dave stared at that familiar smile, that wide set of teeth and felt the need to wipe it off. The thought possessed him quickly and suddenly, engulfing him whole and sucking him in, leaving his head spinning from it. All of a sudden, it was like he had found his mission in life. Nothing else mattered except here and now and damn him if he wasn’t gonna carry out his mission that was staring right at him, encouraging him. His left arm clenched at his side almost instantly and swung it straight towards his mouth.

His fist was right in front of his face, inches away from his mouth when another hand caught it, holding it in place. For the first time Dave tore his eyes away, almost snarling at the culprit for the interruption. Karkat was staring at him with pure horror and even glimpses of fear. This was the face Dave expected Gamzee to bear. Karkat was pushing him back and away from Gamzee with a considerable amount of strength.

“Dave, what the hell back the fuck off!” Karkat ushered trying not to cause a scene, because others were bound to come and see what all the commotion was any moment now.

Dave fought back. At first he tried to shake him off, get his arm back, but somehow he had developed a grip of steel. Dave let go of Gamzee’s collar and grabbed Kakrat’s arm instead, almost wrestling with him, because he was so close, so fucking close to giving that dipshit what he deserved and losing this battle wasn’t an option to him anymore.

Karkat let out a yelp of pain from how hard Dave was gripping his arm and Dave was almost free, but Sollux came in and grabbed Dave from the other side. Now he wasn’t able to free himself no matter how much he tried. Gamzee was still up against the wall not moving, his face was obviously flushed, he was breathing heavily and he was only half smiling, watching Dave with childish curiosity.

“Calm down you idiot what the hell has gotten in to you?” Sollux hissed in his ear dragging him away to the kitchen while Dave was still fidgeting. The waves of rage were still crashing through him from not getting the release he needed. Others eyed him as he was pushed through the door, thinking he had had too much and stayed clear in case of surprise vomiting.

“What the fuck was that about?” Karkat asked outraged sitting Dave down on a chair. He was still breathing heavily, but he wasn’t fighting anymore. The rage was slowly dissolving and Dave was gradually coming to the realization of what he did. Thankfully for them the kitchen was empty at the time.

 “I think I need a drink.” He said turning his head away from Karkat’s and Sollux’s judging eyes. He was surprised at how scratchy his voice sounded. The tall second year huffed and crossed his arms in annoyance, while the freshman turned back and peeked through the door to see Gamzee still against the wall and nodding in assurance to Terezi as she was at his side tending to him with a worried expression. Karkat turned back to Dave with an angry frown, grabbing a bottle of water and sloshing it on his face.

“Here’s your fucking drink.” He was disgusted, while Sollux bore a milder expression.

“What the fuck.” Dave spluttered at the sudden action, grabbing a paper towel to dry his face and his shades which he still refused to take off. Nonetheless the method worked, it got Dave out of his state.

“Dude how much have you had to drink?” Sollux asked almost amused suddenly “Hey how many fingers am I holding up?” he stepped closer putting up three fingers right in front of him.

“Get out of my face.” Dave grumbled annoyed, his voice and breathing were almost even and back to normal.

“Whoa it’s that bad?” Sollux asked, but he was more curious than actually worried.

“I don’t know.” Dave responded. Perhaps playing wasted was his best option if he wanted to get out of this without much fuss, because honestly, he wasn’t even that drunk in the first place.

“Here you were giving me lectures on how to keep my shit and play it cool with Gamzee and then you go on and lash out yourself! If it weren’t for the fact that you almost beat both of us up, I’d be fucking laughing at how pathetic you were just now. And all you have to say is ‘I don’t know’?” Karkat was failing to keep his voice down. Sollux kept a hand on Karkat in case he decided to go on a rampage like Dave, but the blond knew that this was just another one of his rants. Meanwhile, Kanaya and Cronus entered the kitchen cautiously.

“Hey what happened? We saw Terezi leading Gamzee back to his room for a smoke or something, and he was all roughed and bruised up. Terezi didn’t tell us why though.” Cronus asked quietly eyeing the situation curiously, he was keen on gossip. Kanaya beside him bore a worried expression.

“Dave and Gamzee got in a fight.” Sollux explained raising his eyebrows, being glad to be the one who was there in the action. Both of their eyes went wide.

“Holy shit, are you kidding?” Cronus exclaimed with twice the curiosity.

“Oh god, did any of you get hurt?” Kanaya asked stepping closer.

“Nothing too serious happened, me and Karkat stepped in before they started to beat each other up.” Sollux said proudly.

“Except that mister I’m-too-cool-for-school was the one who was doing all the beating.” Karkat accusingly turned to Dave again.

“Wow I would never have imagined neither Dave nor Gamzee being genuinely angry, not to mention aggressive.” Cronus was shaking his head in disbelief “But you know what they say, it’s not a real party unless there’s a fight and someone hooks up.” Cronus said with an awful suggestive smirk stepping closer to Kanaya.

“Get your hand off my waist.” Kanaya stated evenly and a bit threateningly not bothering to look at him. Cronus complied as fear momentarily crossed his features.

“Jesus Christ back off from her, she’s not interested. God, you’re so fucking desperate it actually hurts looking at you.” Karkat replied stepping in to defend Kanaya which was completely unnecessary.

“So you’re stating that Dave was the one who initiated the conflict?” Kanaya asked turning to Karkat , trying to change the subject.

“Yeah.” Karakt replied and all of them turned their eyes on Dave, who had his face in his hands. The group was staring at him expecting him to finally speak up and explain himself.

“Okay I admit I might have lost my cool a bit.” Dave said tiredly looking up at them.

“Oh no shit really?” Karkat asked crossing his arms “You can’t be serious, when did this happen?”

“But Gamzee crossed the line there, like he took one giant leap over the line and won the gold medal for long distance jumping.” Dave tried to explain himself ignoring Karkat’s comments.

“Well what did he do?” Kanaya asked curiously.

“Oh right he did go a bit overboard.” Cronus said remembering being in the living room during that “Like at first it was a bit funny, y’know Gamzee being Gamzee, but then he started to full on make fun of him and his friends. I’ve never seen him act like that, most of us agreed that what he said wasn’t cool.”

“That still doesn’t excuse you from attacking him.” Kanaya said all-knowingly.

“Yeah I know. I’m calm now. I’ll-“ Dave heaved a tired sigh “I’ll apologize to him.”

“Good, that’s the smart thing to do Dave.” Kanaya said nodding and assuring him.

“What? But Gamzee was at fault here too, he should apologize first for saying all those things!” Cronus piped up.

“Yeah I agree. If what Cronus’s saying is true then Gamzee provoked you in the first place and you shouldn’t stand down to him.” Sollux agreed.

“Are you both really such fucking idiots?” Karkat asked putting his face in his hand “Do you not realize that this way the fight between them would never end?!”

“But then it’s not fair to Dave. If he has any pride he’ll-“ Cronus went on.

“Oh you boys with your unquenchable thirst to prove your manhood.” Kanaya interrupted shaking her head.

“Guys, guys.” Dave stepped in. “I agree with Kanaya on this one, someone has to be the bigger man here. I don’t want this to turn into some drama high school show like Hannah Montana or” Dave shuddered “Glee.”

“See? All of you should learn from this.” Kanaya said looking down at all of the boys. “But are you sure you’ve calmed down?” Kanaya asked Dave.

“Yeah of course, I’m chill like the pill, smooth as ice-“

“Don’t!” Karkat interrupted him loudly narrowing his eyes at him. “Anyway I’m gonna go check on Gamzee.” He turned towards the door.

“Oh, but you don’t need to, Terezi is there with him.” Cronus called after him, but he pretended he didn’t hear that and walked away.

They left it at that and separated going back to the party. Dave settled with them that he’d go apologize after an hour or so when Gamzee was all high and forgiving. Besides, if Gamzee wanted him to be thrown out of the party he would have known by now.

He went back to the living room and hung out with almost every friend group there. The blond didn’t really care anymore about who they were and gladly took shots with every one of them, their chatter was getting louder and more fun every second. Everyone was pretending that what Gamzee said didn’t really happen or they were just polite enough not to bring it up. Well everyone except Friska who was still laughing about the whole thing.

“Fuck off Friska.” Dave retorted after a while getting tired of her.

“It’s Vriska you idiot!” she responded offended “Are you deaf as well as stupid?” she stormed off with her nose up while the few people around him were laughing their heads off. And that was the story of how Vriska got her nickname.

Dave stopped counting the drinks he took after the fifth one. He didn’t know what had gotten into him, but he knew whatever it was, he wanted to drown it in alcohol. For him to get completely wasted took about a good hour or maybe two? Time moved weirdly for drunk Dave. Everything was moving too fast suddenly, he was laughing so much and he didn’t even know at what or with whom. Faces and lights were blurring so much he could barely tell them apart. Everything was sort of happening in frames, hell he was even dancing and it was great. He closed his eyes and he felt like flying. It was all so fucking awesome.

But there was something at the back of his head, something he was forgetting he had to do. It was like he left his house with the stove on. He racked his brain hard and watched as Karkat cautiously entered one of the bedrooms with Terezi and it hit him. He knew what exactly he had forgotten. He clenched his fist and his heart started spurting excitedly in his chest.

Dave couldn’t believe the others bought the crap he was feeding them in the kitchen back then. The thought was obsessing him ever since he had Gamzee in his grasp, that sense of purpose that he never got to fulfill. He doubted he had ever been this angry in his life. He was reminding himself how much he hated what Gamzee said, hated that he was constantly teasing him, and hated the fact that he made him lose his cool. His mind was occupied with those thoughts so much they covered up the fact that he craved the heat, the friction and the adrenaline surging through him like it did before.

He honestly didn’t remember how or when but his legs were suddenly carrying him to the hallway with determination. He had to lean on the wall when he took a turn because his coordination was all backwards. Dave stopped in front of two doors…or was it one door? No it was definitely two. Gamzee was in the left one and Karkat was in the right one. Before Dave could proceed the last sober thought went through his head and stopped him. It was a moment of consideration, somewhere at the back of his mind he knew he would regret going through the left door and going through the right one would put his mind at ease at least for now. But the urge was so strong, the pit of his stomach wasn’t tingling, it was more like the French revolution was happening in there.

The two identical wooden doors were staring at him, blurring together as Dave started to slightly sway while standing in place and finally tumbled through one, with the last thought of ‘fuck it’. He didn’t even take a look around, he sensed and saw the only thing alive and breathing in it and advanced towards it. He wasn’t thinking, he didn’t want to think, he could think about how he grabbed a handful of messy hair intentionally painfully tomorrow, he could regret shoving that face against his when he sobered up, but not now, not when it was so good feeling the other fight and give in over and over again. Not when it felt so good to win.

Dave somehow ended up against the wall… or on the ground? Maybe both things happened. Either way it was painful, but instead of a wince of pain he heard an eager groan escape his mouth and he was pushing back, or rolling over? Hands were flying everywhere, desperate to be on every part of their bodies and cover as much ground as possible like they were on a time limit. There was another painful shove and he bit down hard instinctively on the other’s lip or maybe shoulder, he just knew that there was blood, maybe some of it was his, he stopped keeping track.

He couldn’t stand looking at the other’s face though. Feelings of repulsion and disgust were followed right after any time he did. The fury rippled through him and he needed them to be closer, there had to be more heat, more friction. Whatever that was happening it wasn’t enough and Dave started to fumble with getting both of their pants off.

Something ripped, it was hard to tell what or to whom it belonged to because of the way they were tangled. Then everything started going at double speed. There was skin everywhere, for a moment it was really cold but then it got so warm so suddenly and it was so motherfucking great and it was over in a flash. Dave felt the roughness of the carpet hitting his face as he passed out.

…

Dave slowly opened up his eyes and for a few frightening seconds he had to remember who he was, what year was it, where he was and what was happening. A table and a chair were somehow standing sideways, and Dave burrowed his eyebrows in confusion. No wait, they weren’t standing sideways, Dave was just lying on the bed. And not just any bed, it was his bed back in his dorm.

He tried lifting his head and wow was that a bad idea. It came flopping down on the pillow like it weighed a ton. Pain seared through his head and whole face as he rolled over onto his back and winced as his whole body was aching for some reason. His throat was dry and begging for water, but he couldn’t get out of bed as much as he wanted to.

Instead, Dave tried to remember. He knew there was a party, he recalled having a conflict with Gamzee and he definitely remembered drinking lots, but specific details or anything past that was blank. He couldn’t even tell the sequence of the stuff that happened. Dave had a moment of slight panic because this had never happened to him. He had been drunk before, but never had he lost control so much that he didn’t remember. He searched his thoughts and all that he could remember was standing in front of two doors and wondering something… something important too. All he knew was that it involved something with Karkat.

Dave’s eyes widened in horror. He moved around slightly and yes he wasn’t wearing any pants, and little Dave down there definitely got some action last night, but with whom and how? Fucking hell how did this happen. Dave clutched his aching head. He had a sudden flash of a memory, well if you could call that a memory. He had someone’s arms pinned above their head by the wrists, he was squeezing the left wrist unnecessarily hard and dry fucking them like there was no tomorrow. But he couldn’t see a face, no matter how much he tried to concentrate. But he wasn’t even sure if that was a real memory, maybe he dreamt that up?

Dave made the connection between the two memories and shuddered. That couldn’t have been it. He was wasted sure, but he would never go that far. The idea was dismissed from his head because it didn’t make sense, it couldn’t have…right?

Speak of the motherfucking devil, his roommate walked in the room carrying a cup of hot coffee with him. He looked just as wrecked and tired as Dave felt.

“Well look who fucking woke up.” Karkat said mockingly keeping his voice down. Dave tried lifting his head again, slowly now, bit by bit until he was sitting up and rubbing his eyes tiredly.

“What the hell happened? How did I end up back here?” Dave asked looking around. His voice was scratchy and his lip hurt and felt swollen. He raised his hand and felt a cut on his bottom lip with his fingers.

“I found you in the bathroom puking your liver out and called a cab to take us back.” Karkat glared at him.

“Shit I don’t remember any of that.” Dave put his head into his hands.

“Yeah well maybe it’s for the best.” His roommate said quietly taking off his hoodie and flopping down on the chair, sipping his coffee.

Dave lifted his head thinking he needed some coffee too when his eyes caught something.

“Hey Karkat?”

“What?” he turned to him annoyed.

“Where did you get that bruise on your wrist?”

“From you, you asshole.” He said after taking a breath. “God you’re fucking hopeless.” He muttered under his breath and left the room with the mug in his hands.


	5. The Case of The Missing Pants

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is more of a filler chapter where i just needed to tie some loose ends

Fuck this fucking shit he messed up. He messed up so majorly. What had to happen exactly for the thought to run through his head? Even more so, what had to happen for him to actually act upon this thought? Dave kept thinking as he got out of bed and had the urge to take a shower or maybe five of them. Yes five acid showers should be enough for starters.

He gathered fresh clothes which looked exactly the same, red and white t-shirt, dark blue jeans along with black underwear and socks, and headed towards the showers. Despite loving his rad choice of clothes, Dave kind of wished he could burn the ones he was wearing now.

The water was only lukewarm as he stood there letting it completely sober his head while watching little beads of water drop down from the tips of light strands of hair. He was sort of aiming to have that dramatic ‘standing under ice cold water and thinking about the meaning of life’ moment like in those movies that Karkat watched, but Dave despised cold water so he figured this would just have to do.

He had a moment to properly look at himself after the party and boy did he have a lot of bruises. It was surprising he could see them considering the fact that he showered with his shades on. All those black spots on his body (some of them Dave noticed were actually hickeys) on his pale body were making him look like a cow. A cow that was thoroughly milked last night. Dave raised his hand and touched the cut on his lip again. The wound stung more fiercely and even though it seemed weird he could swear he still felt the ghost of someone biting and nibbling on it. From what little things he could remember there was a tingling in his stomach reminding him of how exciting it was and it was kind of making him sick at the same time.

After standing under the stream for a few more minutes he figured that both the ironical and non ironical purposes of this was served and ventured back to his dorm in fresh clothes. While holding his dirty in every way yesterday’s clothes, he briefly considered burning them again or throwing them to the dumpster at the very least. Sadly Dave hadn’t learnt how to shit out money yet so wasting clothes wasn’t an option.

He was rummaging through the mess of in their room trying to ignore the important questions and decisions he had to make and busying himself with finding his pants instead. Everything was sort of falling to pieces and the inevitability of facing yesterday’s decisions wasn’t getting any smaller, but his jeans were still the number one priority.

He came across his phone and found about a dozen messages from Roxy saying she was sorry and asking when he was going to be free so they could talk. Dave had to think for a few minutes to remember why Roxy was even sorry in the first place. The door behind him creaked open and he heard familiar footsteps shuffling in, and Dave’s insides did this idiotic thing where his stomach leaped up to his throat and he momentarily froze in place. The blond looked down at his phone and typed ‘now. We can meet up right now’.

“Hey, where did you put my pants dude?” Dave still had his back turned on him. He mentally high-fived himself for sounding totally chill.

“Do I look like your fucking personal leg wear keeper?” Karkat asked walking over to the desk right next to Dave. “You were already as pantless as Donald duck when I found you last night.”

Damn… that meant his pants were still at the crime scene. He needed to get those back before someone realized why they were in the room Karkat was staying at. Dave’s phone buzzed with his cousin’s ‘ok’ lighting up the screen and he grabbed his hoodie intending to flee the room without further ado. However, he paused near the door and finally turned around and looked at his friend from across the room.

“Speaking of last night…” his voice was quieter than usual and he was trying to look everywhere except straight at Karkat “Do you think we should talk about what happened there, y’know… in the bedroom?” Dave stuffed his hands deep into his pockets until he thought he was going to rip them.

A deep blush started covering Karkat’s neck and spread to his face in a matter of seconds while his eyes widened comically.

“Wh-what?! What do you mean what happened, nothing happened!” Karkat started unnecessarily yelling shrinking down in the chair “I don’t know if your brain is still bathing in fucking liquor, but you’re not making any sense here! You said it yourself that you didn’t remember anything.” The shorter one ranted out of breath while his face was of deep vermilion.

“Oh okay so it’s gonna be like that, isn’t it?” Dave sighed looking down at the ground. Well it could’ve gone worse he thought.

“Weren’t you going somewhere?” Karakt asked impatiently.

“Yeah. Later.” Dave dropped and walked out of the room. Even after this there seemed to be only one logical step to take next, but first he had to tell someone else before he exploded.

…

“Oh my god you hooked up with Karkat?!” Roxy exclaimed jumping up a little from the bench.

“Would you keep it down?” Dave muttered annoyed looking around the park and the passing students cautiously. “I don’t want anyone else to know. This is the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever done okay and I used to shit my pants.”

“Dave, every kid shits his pants.” Roxy rolled her eyes.

“I know and it’s fucking humiliating.”

“Why didn’t you ever tell me you were into guys too?” Roxy suddenly asked outraged.

“Because it’s not a big deal.” Dave shrugged “It’s like the dick wants what the dick wants. I don’t really care about the fact that I did it with a guy, it’s just kinda fucked up that it happened with a friend.”

“But oh god you have to tell me more, how did it happen?” she squealed excitedly “Who initiated it? Who was on top?” she wiggled her eyebrows at him suggestively.

“I don’t know. I was too hammered to remember any of that.”

“Geez, maybe you should tone it down a little before you screw half of the campus.” Roxy advised shaking her head.

“Weren’t you the one who just said that you didn’t make it to the party because you passed out during the warm-up party?” Dave raised his eyebrow questioningly.

“Hey I said I was sorry.” she rolled her eyes “But if you don’t remember anything, how do you even know you slept with him?” Roxy asked skeptically, leaning back.

“I just do.” He insisted. Roxy was giving him a pleading look and he sighed “I know that it was pretty rough and Karkat has bruises on his arm and he said I did that to him.”

“Jesus… so that’s where this is from?” she asked pointing to his cut lip and the marks on his neck “I thought this was from the fight that you got in with Gamzee.” Dave had completely forgotten about that. His stomach flipped at the memory. He really needed to see a doctor or something about his stomach, this was getting ridiculous.

“You already know about that?”

“Yeah! Everyone keeps talking about how you whooped his ass and shit, that’s why I wanted to talk to you” Dave smirked proudly and sat up a bit straighter “cause I find that hard to believe.” Dave’s smirk dropped.

“What? Dude I totally owned his ass back there. I might as well have given it a name and a collar from the hard ownership I had on that ass.”

“Well whatever you did, it certainly made people notice you, some of them are even afraid of you.” Roxy said the last bit quieter. “I just never thought you’d get into a real fist fight.”

“Nah we didn’t really fight. He was teasing me and taking it too far, so I just taught him that you don’t mess with the Strider.” Dave admitted. He couldn’t help but feel a bit proud of himself.

“Well you’re a tough teacher then. Some people who saw him in the morning said he was all bruised up.” Roxy shook her head feeling a bit sorry for the stoner. Dave burrowed his eyebrows together in confusion. He just rammed Gamzee against the wall a few times, who knew he bruised like a fucking peach?

“So what now? Did you and Karkat talk about it?” Roxy asked taking them back to the topic.

“Yeah I guess. He refuses to acknowledge it happened and the whole tension is fucking awkward as hell.”

“So what are you going to do?” she asked bringing her knees up to her chest.

“Obviously I’m moving out.”   

…

Dave made his way to the library barely focusing on his surroundings, nodding at the people who passed him by saying hello, but he couldn’t tell who they were if his life depended on it.

It was the only course of action he could take, one that he was most comfortable with. The mere thought of what happened made him sorta wish the ground would open up and swallow him whole and he could spend the rest of his days making sick beats for Satan. But talking about it with Roxy and reliving that shit all over again? He doubted he could ever look at Karkat again without wanting to curl up in a ball and hide in the corner of a shower.

Amongst the many students, he did see a pair of familiar faces and he headed towards them thinking that apartment hunting would just have to wait a bit more. 

“Hey Terezi wait up!” he raised his voice a bit seeing her and Sollux walking a few feet ahead of him. Dave didn’t run up to them though, his headache wouldn’t have allowed it anyway, and instead walked to them in the same pace that was not too fast or too slow, but just right.

The other two turned around and waited for Dave to catch up.

“’Sup?” he greeted them casually while Terezi wrinkled her nose.

“Geez Dave you reek of booze.” She stuck out her tongue in disgust.

“Bullshit, I took a shower and everything.” He contradicted in an even tone.

“Everything smells like alcohol to you because _you_ still smell like a vodka mudshake.” Sollux rolled his eyes.

“I think I can tell the difference between my own and other’s smells.” Terezi folded her arms offended.

“Of course you can, and I’m sure our 89 year old librarian is a raging alcoholic.” He dropped sarcastically raising an eyebrow. Terezi huffed haughtily and turned to Dave instead.

“Dave why didn’t you ever tell us you were a hunky dancer?” she asked smiling playfully and nudged him by the arm.

“What?” He took a step back.

“The moves you were showing last night were legendary! I mean I didn’t see them, but everyone painted one hell of a picture for me.”

“Holy shit is that true?” he asked turning to Sollux who was quietly chuckling “Fuck I don’t remember any of that.” Dave ran his hand through his hair desperately and quickly smoothed it out right after.

“Seriously? You don’t remember anything?” Terezi asked raising her eyebrows expectantly.

“No. The second half of the night is all fucking gone.” He admitted looking at the ground. Terezi looked somewhat relieved or maybe she was just mocking him, you could never tell.

“Whoa. Do you remember that fight you had with Gamzee?” Sollux asked surprised.

“Yeah that was fucked up.” Dave admitted feeling a bit sick.

“Hell yeah it was!” Terezi piped up loudly with a defensive posture. Dave winced slightly from the sudden loudness going straight through his headache. “What were you thinking? You should be glad Gamzee wasn’t mad at you for what you did.”

“He wasn’t?” Dave asked surprised. He really should be glad, because the less drama the better, but… there was something that wasn’t letting him, like he was actually a bit… disappointed?

“Yeah.” Terezi calmed down a bit “He even said that he was okay with the fact that you did it.” She said a bit confused “Something about that it helped you grow. I don’t know, he’s a weird guy.”  She concluded giving up on trying to figure out Gamzee’s reasoning. “He isn’t leaving his room though, he’s been cooped up there the whole day. Guess he probably had too much just like Mr. cool guy over here.” She said mockingly trying to imitate Dave’s posture.

“What else do you remember?” Sollux asked instead.

“Nothing much past that. I was wondering maybe you guys could help me fill in the gaps.”

“Uhm…” Sollux looked at the ground in concentration “I don’t think anything happened, you just drank a lot and embarrassed yourself on the dance floor and passed out in one of the bedrooms I think. Karkat told me that he found you in the bathroom early in the morning.”

“Is that it?” Dave asked raising his eyebrows.

“Yeah why would there be anything else?” Terezi added hurriedly, folding her arms again as her cheeks turned pink.

“Okay cool.” Dave heaved a sigh of relief. At least rumors wouldn’t be spreading and what little of his dignity that was left would be saved. The conversation sort of died from there and Dave resumed walking to his intended destination.

Near the door to the building he saw a group of girls standing and whispering something secretively, barely holding in their giggles. He recognized one of the girls as Friska. Dave knew that wasn’t her name, but this one suited her better. She was the one doing most of the whispering. While walking closer to them he could’ve sworn he had heard Karkat’s name between the incomprehensive words shared between the group. As soon as one of the girls spotted him coming closer she nudged Friska urgently trying to quietly and subtly motion to the upcoming threat, which wasn’t so quiet or subtle actually. All of them stilled immediately trying to appear non suspicious even though the plan was failing miserably. Dave passed them without at word and heard them start giggling again once he had closed the door to the building. Dave had a bad feeling about all this.

…

Karkat was finally having a moment of peace, sitting quietly in his room watching Sex in the City without Dave’s constant commentary and mockery. He could shamelessly snuggle up in one of his blankets and even smile from how warm that felt and maybe relish in yesterday’s memories for a bit. But life was just too fucking cruel to let him have two minutes of solidarity, oh no, of course someone had to knock on the fucking door and make him leave his comfy nest of flowery smelling fabrics. He grumbled under his breath and got up intending to be unpleasant to whoever was behind the door.

He opened it to find a slightly taller than him student with black hair shaved at the sides standing in front of him, holding something neatly folded in his shaky arms. His whole Mohawk, band tee with the ripped vest on top was creating a punkish and even a bit threatening look, but his uncertain posture and round face with its soft features were giving him away. Tavros smiled shyly.

“Hey Karakat.”

“What in the ever loving fuck do you want?” Karkat asked giving him his famous death glare. Tavros almost visibly shook and looked down uncertainly at the item he was holding.

“Uh Gamzee asked me to take this here.” He said looking at the ground “Apperantly Dave left them in his room.” he handed the item to Karkat who grabbed it tiredly. It was Dave’s pants from yesterday.

“Whatever.” He grumbled “Is that all?” he asked impatiently.

“Yeah I guess. Although uh I’m gonna be like y’know… since I can’t take another day with Gamzee- I thought you guys should know that uh-“ he started saying, taking pauses after every other two words.

“Oh my god spit it out you thundercunt.” Karkat closed his eyes from the frustration.

“Moving out. I’m gonna be moving out.” Tavros jumped a bit from Karkat’s sudden explosion.

“About fucking time. I told you it wouldn’t work out.” The freshman stated all-knowingly.

“Yeah you were right. I guess I should’ve listened to you.” Tavros admitted looking at the ground. The shorter one sighed tiredly looking at the state of his friend.

“Okay well you’ve got something on your mind, c’mon spill it.” He gave a defeated slump of shoulders.

“What? Really?” his head quirked up suddenly. Karkat gave one last look back to his room where his nest of happy thoughts and rom-coms was waiting for him and rolled his eyes.

“Yeah let’s go before I change my mind.” He said going back inside to grab his jacket and texted Dave as well ‘ _Your pants are back safe and sound you freak_.’


End file.
